Train a bird to sit on your hand and listen to your call.

Today, you will train a small bird to not be afraid of you, fly onto your hand, let you pet and hold it, and recognize its own name as well as respond to your call.

First, prepare a cage along with basic water and food bowls. Let the bird rest inside for two to three days while feeding it well until it becomes plump and healthy.

Step two: Start controlling its food intake. Be sure to monitor the bird’s condition at all times to avoid starving it.

For food control, only place a water bowl in the cage. The fasting period is generally around 4 hours. However, time alone shouldn’t be the sole measure—always observe the bird’s condition to prevent it from becoming too weak.

After four hours, when the bird is at its hungriest, it will start walking around restlessly.

Begin training:

1.Let the bird fly onto your hand.

On the first night, leave around 100 pieces of food in its bowl. This way, you don’t have to worry about it starving during the day. Even if it goes 12 hours without eating, it will still be fine.

On the second morning, test its level of hunger. It will actively walk toward you and move around restlessly.On the second morning, test its level of hunger. It will actively walk toward you and move around restlessly.

If the bird doesn’t show this behavior, continue controlling its food intake.

Here’s the key: When the bird is hungry, walking back and forth and coming closer to the cage when it sees you, place the food evenly in the palm of your hand. Then, test if the bird shows interest in eating by holding the food outside the cage. If the bird visibly wants to eat, slowly extend your hand into the cage. Otherwise, if you reach in too soon, the bird won’t fly to your hand. Through emergency response training, the bird will gradually stop being afraid of your hand.

At this point, when you extend your hand into the cage, let the bird fly onto your hand to eat on its own. Every bird is different, and for those that have been caged for a long time, you’ll need to train it to eat from your hand for several days. Feed it 1 to 2 times per day, always in your hand, and make sure there’s nothing in the cage except water.

Once the bird is accustomed to this, we only need to place 2 or 3 pieces of food on our hand each time. Continue feeding like this for several days, until, even when there’s no food in your hand, the bird still flies onto your hand when you extend it into the cage. Once this happens, you can proceed to the next step.

2.Train the bird to let you touch and hold it.

Choose a small cage that is about the same size as your hand.

Hold the food in your hand, gripping it tightly, and feed the bird through the bars of the cage without letting it eat immediately. This will help train the bird to tolerate being grabbed and touched.

Like in the picture, form a circle with your left hand and hold the food with your right hand. Wait for the bird to come over and eat on its own. After it eats a few pieces, gently place it back in the cage. Repeat this action, gradually increasing the distance between your left and right hands. Continue training for several days until the bird trusts you.

3.Training: call the bird’s name and encourage it to fly over.

First, transfer the bird to a larger cage. When feeding, make sure to hold the food tightly so the bird has to work harder to get it.

Start training it to recognize its name. Hold the food slightly farther away and call its name. If it doesn’t respond to the name, place it back in the cage and continue calling its name. Once it willingly flies to your hand, give it the food. It’s important to start the training inside the cage, or it might fly away.

Then, start increasing the distance and repeat this process. As long as the bird is willing to fly over, make sure to feed it a few pieces of food as encouragement, and do so promptly.